Blood Orange Cake

We were invited for dinner by some friends who are lactose intolerant. So the trick was to come up with a dessert with no dairy whatsoever. The result was this delicious blood orange cake, inspired by Jamie Oliver.
To further cement the choice, we were at a local business walkabout last Saturday and came across an olive oil store called 1899. It's in Deep Ellum, in Dallas. There they had a blood orange infused olive oil. So all the auguries were in the right place for an experiment. Fortunately these are good friends and experimentation is encouraged.
Madame pronounced that "we can serve this to people", so we know that it was good!

Ingredients

5 Blood oranges (any orange will do, but blood oranges are pretty) - divided use, zest and juice

3/4 cup honey (divided use) - warmed to ensure that it is runny

7 Fluid ounces good quality olive oil (We used blood orange infused oil, unflavored would be fine too)

3 eggs

2/3 cups stone ground cornmeal (medium grind)

2 cups ground almonds

Method - Cake

Prepare an 8" spring form pan by spraying the sides with cooking spray and placing a parchment round in the bottom. Preheat the oven to 325F.

Whisk together the olive oil and 5 oz of the warmed honey until well combined. Whisk in the eggs and continue beating for 2 minutes. Add the zest of 3 oranges. Fold in the almonds, cornmeal and juice of 2 oranges.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for around 40 minutes - until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes before turning the cake out of the pan gently - after loosening the sides with an offset spatula or paring knife..

Method - Sauce

Stir the remaining honey and orange juice together in a small saucier. Bring to the boil and reduce to about 1/2 the volume.

Method - Serving

I remembered how good orange juice and bourbon are together. So when I saw that our hosts had some of the excellent Blanton's Original Bourbon, a small glass of that, together with the cake with warmed sauce poured over seemed like the right thing to do.

It was.

Buttermilk pie

A year ago, a very good friend told me that he wanted a buttermilk pie for Thanksgiving. He had always enjoyed them as a child, but hadn't had one in years. So I made one to take to his family in 2018. He said that it reminded him of the buttermilk pies of his youth.

This year, we were with some other friends and again, I took a buttermilk pie, and again it was very well received. So, with thanks to Stella Parks (aka Bravetart) and Debbie Lang-Caldwell here's what I did.

Of course, I made the crust - but I could have bought one. I so like the easy crust that Bravetart has in her book and here. I strongly recommend that you go the serious eats site and follow her recipe and technique.

I also did something a little unconventional - I didn't fully blind bake the crust. I gave it a start, but knowing how long the pie would bake, I didn't want to risk the edges of the crust burning. The filling recipe (below) calls for an unbaked crust, but that did leave a bit of a soggy bottom. And we all know that soggy bottoms are quite undesirable. So I compromised and blind baked the crust for 20 minutes.

And most approaches don't call for browned butter, but I have recently found that browning the butter first adds some extra flavor depth.

Ingredients - Filling

1/2 cup butter (browned)

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup buttermilk

3T Flour

1t Vanilla

1/4 t nutmeg finely grated

Method

Heat the oven to 400F. Brown the butter carefully over medium heat and allow to cool. Meanwhile in a stand mixer combine the eggs and sugar, and then add the buttermilk and browned butter, mix gently and add the flour, vanilla and nutmeg.

Pour into the 9" shell and bake for 10 minutes at 400F. Reduce the heat to 350F and bake for a further 40 or so minutes - until a skewer comes out clean. I recommend checking after around 35 minutes to make sure you don't overbake.

Allow to cool and serve at room temperature. 

This will keep for 3 or 4 days (maybe longer, but I have never had one that survived that long)